Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

     The Virginia [Nev] Enterprise tells this affecting story: “Charles Kaiser, who has the only hive of bees in town, says that when he first got his swarm his old cat’s curiosity was much excited in regard to the doings of the little insects the like of which she had never before seen. At first she watched their comings and goings at a distance. She then flattened herself upon the ground and crept along toward the hive, with tail horizontal and quivering. It was clearly evident that she thought the bees some new kind  of game. Finally she took up a position at the entrance to the hive, and when a bee came in or started out, made a dab at it with her paws. This went on for a time without attracting the special attention of the inhabitants of the hive. Presently however, ‘old Tabby’  struck and crused a bee on the edge of the opening to the hive. The smell of the crushed bee alarmed and enraged the whole swarm. Bees by the score poured forth and darted into the fur of the astonished cat. Tabby rolled herself in the grass, spitting, sputtering, biting, clawing, and squalling as a cat never squalled before. She appeared a mere ball of fur and bees as she rolled and tumbled about. She was a length hauled away from the hive with a garden rake, at the cost of several severe stings to her rescuer. Even after she had been taken to a distant part of the grounds the bees stuck in Tabby’s fur, and about once in every two minutes she would utter an unearthly ‘yowl’ and bounce a full yard in the air. On coming down she would try and scratch an ear, when a sting on the back would cause her to turn a succession of back sumersaults and give vent to a running fire of squalls. Like the parrot that was left alone with the monkey, old Tabby had a dreadful time. Two or three days after this adventure, Tabby was caught by her owner, who took her by the neck and threw her down near the bee hive. No sooner did she strike the ground than she gave a fearful squall, and at a single bound reached the top of a fence full six feet in height. There she clung for a moment, with tail as big as a rollingpin, when with another bound and sqall, she was out of sight and did not again put in an appearance for over a week.